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When people are asked what is the most commonly used component in electrical or electronic circuits, the typical answers are “Well, of course everyone knows its resistors”, or “It must be capacitors”, and even sometimes “Nothing operates without transistors”. In fact, none of those answers are correct; the real answer is that conductors are the most common type of component.

From the time when automotive vehicles were essentially mechanical with spark ignition the only electrical system, through the many decades that brought the development of electrical, electronic and computer controlled automotive systems, the need for and methods of automotive testing have evolved along with the vehicles. At one time, electrical testing was sufficient. But with the dawn of the digital computer era, compatibility became a major issue. Those pesky clocked systems are inherently noise producers and are also subject to immunity issues.